Staying Friends With Your Cousins Is A Good Thing
That is the normal practice
Family members should be able to remain friends
Some cousins are best friends, while others don’t know each other at all. It is nice when young cousins can spend time together and become close. Maintaining close relationships with cousins brings happiness.
My children are friends with all their cousins. They are far from all their cousins, but they could be considered friendly to them. They do not live in close proximity to many of their cousins, but they enjoy their company when they occasionally see them. Family reunions are good times for cousins to become better friends.
Families which are close are much preferred, of course. Families are important. Friends may come and go usually, but families remain as blood relatives. They are related whether they like each other or not.
Our grandchildren are good friends with their cousins, but they cannot spend time with each other as much now that they are older. They are mostly in high school and college or beyond now. Their lives have become busier, and they are often separated by many miles. They like to see each other when it is possible.
Family members can become estranged or even be enemies. That is unfortunate, but part of life for some people.
When some of Congressman Adam Kinzinger’s relatives, including some cousins, decided to express their displeasure at him for voting to impeach Donald Trump, they made it a public spectacle. A cousin sent a certified letter to Kinzinger’s father to be sure that the congressman saw it. She also sent the letter to other Republican leaders. That seems like strange behavior for cousins who should care for each other. It would have been far better to speak privately with Kinzinger to let him explain his reasons for voting his conscience. He showed moral courage by doing so when he knew he would receive the wrath of his fellow Republicans. It is doubtful that he could have anticipated that his own family would treat him in that manner.
As a Republican Congressman, Kinzinger knows Trump and he saw all the evidence presented at the impeachment plus he was present at the Capitol during the insurrection. His relatives most likely have not met Trump nor would they ever meet him unless they went to a Trump rally. Yet they pick to support Trump over their own family member.
Unfortunately, politics can make family members enemies. That is a sad thing when families feel so strongly about political views that it causes division and hate to exist within their family.
More love and acceptance should be a bigger part of life in families and in the public.
